2851 
S76d 


STACIC  ANNEX 
[  Cage      | 


Sprague 


Jught  Text-Books  to  be  Supplied 
Gratuitously  to  All  Children 
in  the  Public  Schools  ? 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


TOPICS  Ifi  EDUCATION. 
NO.    1. 

Ought  Te$-Boolp  to  be  pupplied 

to  all  Children  in  the  Public  pchool?? 


A  Paper  Read  at  Massachusetts  State  Teachers'  Associ- 
ation   in    December,    1878.     Supplemented    by 
Remarks  before  the  National  Educational 
Association  in  July,  i88&. 

By  HOMER  B.  SPRAGUE. 


PUBLISHED    BY 

S.  R.  WINCHELL  &  CO., 

CHICAGO,    ILL. 


Stack 


FREE  TEXT  BOOKS. 


[Ax  the  Annual  Meeting  of  the  Massachusetts  Teachers'  Association,  at  Wor- 
cester, Dec.  28, 1878,  Messrs.  John  D.  Billings,  E.  C.  Metcalf  and  Homer  B. 
Sprague  were  appointed  a  Committee,  with  instructions  to  publish  and 
circulate  the  following  essay.] 

"  Ought  Text  Books  to  be  Supplied  Gratuitously  to  All 
Children  in  the  Public  Schools? " 

BY  HOMER  B.   SPRAGUE. 
(Read  at  Mass.  State  Teachers'  Ass'n,  at  Worcester,  Mass.,  Dec.  28,  1878.) 

I.  In  the  discussion  of  this  question,  it  is.  assumed  that 
education,  such  as  children  and  youth  receive  in  the  public 
schools,  is  good  for  the  State,  and  good  for  all ;  that  what- 
ever be  the  vocation  of  the  man  or  woman,  in  a  free 
commonwealth,  it  is  good  to  have  been  well  instructed  in 
the  fundamental  branches,  in  the  rudiments  of  science,  in 
morals,  and  in  good  behavior. 

But  by  the  census  of  Massachusetts  (1875,  Vol.  I,  pp. 
269,  633)  it  appears  that  there  were  in  that  year  89,994 
children  in  the  State,  between  the  ages  of  five  and  fifteen, 
not  receiving  instruction  either  at  home  or  in  any  school. 
The  Massachusetts  Board  of  Education,  as  cited  in  the 
same  Census  Returns,  reported  that  in  the  year  ending 
May  i,  1875,  there  were  in  the  State  24,355  children,  of 
school  age,  who  "  had  not  attended  school  three  months  " 
during  the  year.  Though  the  census  returns  and  the  esti- 


964207 


2  FREE    TEXT    BOOKS. 

mates  of  the  Board  of  Education  differ  thus  widely,  they 
both  show  an  enormous  number  of  children  then  growing 
up  in  ignorance.  A  week  ago,  on  consulting  Col.  Carroll 
D.  Wright,  Chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Statistics,  who  is  re- 
puted the  best  authority,  the  reply  was  received  from  him 
that,  in  his  judgment,  not  less  than  fifteen  to  twenty  thou- 
sand children  in  Massachusetts,  between  the  ages  of  five 
and  fifteen,  have  had  no  schooling  nor  equivalent  instruc- 
tion whatever  during  the  year  1878  now  closing.  To 
these  thousands  should  be  added  a  very  large  number  who 
attend  school  long  enough  to  be  registered,  but  whose 
stay  is  so  brief  that  their  instruction  amounts  to  nothing  or 
next  to  nothing".  With  few  exceptions,  these  twenty  or 
thirty  thousand  children  are  living  in  great  poverty.  The 
cost  of  text-books  is  one  thing  that  bars  the  school  door 
against  them.  It  may  seem  strange  that  so  slight  an 
expense,  say  from  two  to  six  dollars  a  year,  should  keep 
any  out  of  the  public  schools ;  but  those  who  are  in  the 
habit  of  visiting  the  wretched  abodes  of  the  poor,  and  see 
how  hard  it  is  for  many  of  them  to  get  employment,  or 
earn  money  enough  for  the  bare  necessaries  of  life,  know 
very  well  that  multitudes  of  parents  cannot  pay  for  their 
children's  books. 

Of  course,  it  is  impossible  to  ascertain  exactly  how 
many  are  thus  kept  out  of  school  ;  but  we  may  gain  some 
light  on  this  point  from  the  history  of  the  abolition  of 
rate-bills.  Rate-bills  were  a  money  tax  paid  for  tuition  in 
the  public  school.  Every  child,  except  those  excused  for 
extreme  poverty,  paid  for  tuition  a  sum  proportioned  to 
the  number  of  days  he  attended.  This  rate-bill  existed  in 
about  half  the  towns  in  Connecticut  in  the  year  1867;  its 
amount  was  limited  by  law,  in  grades  below  the  high 
school,  to  six  dollars  a  year.  From  the  indefatigable 
Secretary  of  the  Connecticut  Board  of  Education,  Hon.  B. 


FREE    TEXT    BOOKS.  3 

G.  Northrop,  and  his  accurate  assistant,  Rev.  J.  G.  Baird, 
we  learn  that  the  usual  amount  of  the  rate-bill,  or  tuition 
tax,  paid  by  each  child  in  those  schoolswas  from  two  to 
three  dollars.  In  the  year  1868,  having  the  honor  to  be 
chairman  of  the  House  Committee  on  Education  in  the 
General  Assembly  of  Connecticut,  it  was  the  good  fortune 
of  the  writer  of  this  essay  to  aid  in  the  complete  abolition 
of  that  tax,  and  so  removing  that  apparently  slight  barrier 
to  school  instruction. 

What  was  the  result  ?  The  official  report  of  the  Secre- 
tary, Dr.  Northrop,  of  the  year  1869,  shows  that  the 
actual  increase  in  school  attendance  during  that  year  was 
about  six  thousand  pupils,  though  there  was  no  per- 
ceptible increase  in  the  total  population  of  the  State.  The 
next  year  there  was  another  increase  of  about  five  thousand. 
Secretary  Northrop,  in  express  terms,  attributes  this  in- 
crease to  the  removal  of  the  rate-bill.  About  eleven  thous- 
and children,  then,  in  Connecticut,  prior  to  1869,  had  been 
kept  out  of  school  by  the  rate-bill,  although  its  average 
amount  did  not  exceed  three  dollars  a  year.  ("Reports  of 
Conn.  Board  of  Education,  1869,  1870,  1871,  etc.]  If  the 
cost  of  tuition  kept  eleven  thousand  Connecticut  children 
out  of  school,  may  we  not  fairly  infer  that  the  cost  of  text- 
books, which  happens  to  be  nearly  the  same  in  amount, 
now  keeps  very  many  Massachusetts  children  out  of 
school  ? 

Is  it  objected  that  the  experience  of  Connecticut  is 
peculiar  ?  Take  a  very  different  community — California. 
In  1866,  a  rate-bill  existed  in  many  towns  in  that  State. 
The  amount  paid  by  each  child  for  attendance  was,  on  an 
average,  about  twenty-five  cents  a  month,  or  two  dollars 
and  a  half  during  the  school  year  often  months.  In  1866, 
the  rate-bill  was  abolished  by  law  in  California.  The 
consequent  increase  in  attendance  was  six  and  one-half  per 


4  FREE    TEXT    BOOKS. 

cent.  In  other  words,  a  number  equal  to  ore-sixteenth  of 
the  entire  school  attendance  had  been  debarred  from 
instruction  by  the  slight  tax  of  twenty-five  cents  a  month. 
[Swett's  History  of  the  Public  School  System  of  Cali- 
fornia, p.  44 .  and  passim .] 

Is  further  evidence  needed  to  show  that  many  children 
are  kept  away  from  school  by  the  requirement  to  pay  two 
or  three  dollars  a  year  ?  Take  the  State  of  New  York. 
Five  days  ago,  wishing  to  ascertain  the  facts  with  precision, 
the  writer  consulted  the  highest  authority  in  that  State, 
Hon.  S.  B.  Woolworth,  now  and  for  many  years  past  the 
secretary  of  the  Regents  of  the  University  of  the  State  of 
New  York,  and  whose  business  it  is  to  know  all  the  facts 
pertaining  to  education  in  that  commonwealth.  There 
was  received  from  him,  in  answer,  the  following  state- 
ment, under  date  of  "  Albany,  N.  Y.,  Dec.  24,  1878:" 

"  The  rate-bill  was  abolished  by  law  in  New  York  in 
the  year  1867.  The  increase  in  attendance  in  the  public 
schools,  consequent  upon  this  abolition  of  rate-bills,  is 
estimated  at  22,000  the  first  year,  50,000  the  second  year, 
and  78,000  the  third  year.  The  average  amount  of  tui- 
tion, /.  £.,  the  average  amount  of  the  rate-bill,  was  perhaps 
$2.75. 

(Signed)  "  S.  B.  WOOLWORTH." 

There  is  no  resisting  the  conclusion  from  such  facts  as 
these.  If  in  California  a  number  equal  to  one-sixteenth 
of  the  whole  attendance,  if  in  Connecticut  eleven  thousand 
children,  if  in  New  York  seventy-eight  thousand  children, 
all  of  whom  had  been  growing  up  in  ignorance,  were 
drawn  into  the  public  schools  by  exempting  them  from 
the  payment  of  twenty-five  or  thirty  cents  a  month  for 
tuition,  then  it  is  safe  to  conclude  that,  of  the  fifteen  or 


FREE    TEXT    BOOKS.  5 

twenty  thousand  Massachusetts  children  who  never  see 
the  inside  of  a  schoolhouse,  and  of  the  five  or  ten  thousand 
others  who  attend  school  just  long  enough  to  get  their 
names  on  the  school-roll,  (perhaps  at  some  evening  school 
where  the  work  at  best  is  but  slight,)  there  are  multitudes 
who  would  be  likely  to  be  drawn  into  the  public  schools 
by  exempting  them  from  the  payment  of  an  equal  sum 
for  books  and  stationery.  Unless  human  nature  is  very 
different  in  Massachusetts,  several  thousands  of  ignorant 
boys  and  girls  might  thus  become  intelligent  learners,  a 
boon  the  importance  of  which  it  would  be  difficult  to  over- 
estimate. 

Does  any  one  deny  the  wide-spread  illiteracy  in  Mas- 
sachusetts ?  There  are  the  census  figures  of  1875  : 
"  Total  number  of  persons  in  Massachusetts,  above  ten 
years  of  age,  unable  to  read  or  write,  77,550;  7,646  of 
them  natives  of  Massachusetts."  And  then  there  is  the 
number,  perhaps  equally  large,  of  those  who  are  able  to 
read  and  write,  and  nothing  more  —  groping  in  the 
shadowy  border-land,  and  for  all  practical  pui-poses  to  be 
classed  with  the  dwellers  in  the  densest  ignorance.  How 
beneficent  the  measure  that  shall  bring  many  hundreds, 
perhaps  thousands,  of  these  benighted  ones  and  their  chil- 
dren within  the  charmed  circle  where  knowledge  shall  be 
poured  upon  them  like  the  sunshine  !  Says  Carlyle  :  "  It 
is  not  because  of  his  work  that  I  pity  the  poor  man  ;  we 
must  all  work,  or  steal,  howsoever  we  name  our  stealing. 
But  what  I  do  mourn  over  is,  that  the  lamp  of  his  soul 
should  go  out;  that  no  ray  of  heavenly,  or  even,  earthly, 
wisdom  should  visit  him,  but  only,  in  the  haggard  dark- 
ness, like  two  specters,  Fear  and  Indignation.  .  .  . 
Alas  !  while  the  body  stands  so  broad  and  brawny,  must 
the  soul  lie  blinded,  dwarfed,  stupefied,  almost  annihi- 
lated? .  .  .  That  one  man  should  die  ignorant  that  had 


FREE    TEXT    BOOKS. 

capacity  for  knowledge,  this  I  call  a  tragedy,  were  it  to 
happen  twenty  times  a  minute,  as  bv  some  calculations  it 
does.  " 

II.  We  come  to  another  argument  for  free  books. 
If  all  children  are  supplied  by  the  public,  that  supply  can 
be  instantaneous.  There  need  be  no  delay  in  beginning 
the  lessons.  But  now  there  is  great  delay.  These  who 
supply  themselves  are  often  slow  in  getting  the  books;  the 
matter  has  to  be  discussed  between  parents  and  children  ; 
various  expedients  and  plans  to  avoid  expense  have  to  be 
considered.  They  perhaps  have  old  editions  ;  or  they  do 
not  see  why  a  different  book  should  be  used  this  year,  or 
why  Greene's  Grammar  Will  not  answer  the  purpose  as 
well  as  Kerl's,  or  why  John  and  Mary  cannot  both  use 
the  same  arithmetic.  Or  they  forget  to  buy  the  books, 
or  cannot  find  them  at  the  bookstores,  or  the  money  is  not 
forthcoming  to  pay  for  them.  They  are  weary  of  perpet- 
ually buying  new  books;  every  removal  from  one  town  to 
another  necessitates  another  outlay  for  books.  The  garret 
is  lumbered  up  with  twenty  kinds  of  arithmetics,  readers, 
grammars  and  geographies,  not  one  being  used  up.  To 
fully  half  the  parents,  the  subject  of  new  school-books  is 
an  annual,  if  not  a  quarterly,  nuisance. 

To  the  teachers  it  is  still  more  so.  Exactly  who  are 
the  persons  that  must  be  supplied  at  the  public  expense  is 
first  to  be  ascertained.  Now  comes  the  odious  business  of 
prying  into  the  pecuniary  condition  of  parents.  Every 
case  of  alleged  inability  or  refusal  to  procure  the  books 
must  be  investigated  by  the  teacher,  or  by  some  town 
officer,  or  even  by  both,  to  prevent  the  public  from  being 
wronged  by  a  parent  able  to  pay,  or  the  worthy,  helpless 
poor  from  being  deprived  of  books  and  schooling.  This 
investigation  requires  a  'power  of  cross-examination,  a 


FREE    TEXT    BOOKS.  7 

talent  of  inquisitorial  nose-thrusting  into  other  people's 
affairs,  and  a  judicial  soundness,  which  few  possess.  All 
this  takes  time  from  the  legitimate  work  of  the  school. 
An  eminent  grammar-school  master,  whose  name  com- 
mands the  respect  of  you  all,  wrote  to  me  last  week  as 
follows:  "It  is  very  plain  that  if  the  original  intent  of  the 
law  [in  regard  to  supplying  books  to  indigent  children] 
were  strictly  observed,  there  is  not  a  grammar  master  in 
Boston  who  would  have  any  time  for  anything  except  in- 
vestigation; and  in  this  he  would  often  utterly  fail."  But 
the  time  spent  in  such  investigation  is  not  the  only  time 
lost  in  the  present  method.  After  the  books  have  been 
allowed  or  refused  by  the  master  and  the  committee,  and 
when  doubtful  cases  may  still  be  pending,  or  perhaps  have 
been  settled  wrongly  and  with  quarreling  and  bitterness  — 
after  all  this  odious  work  and  worry — a  requisition  for 
the  books  must  be  made  out,  it  must  be  tied  carefully  in 
red  tape  and  transmitted  to  the  proper  authorities.  The 
order  is  then  acted  upon,  the  bookseller's  prices  are  beaten 
down  to  the  lowest  possible  point,  the  books  are  bought, 
sent  to  the  master,  stamped  or  labeled  by  him  with  the  city 
mark  of  property,  and  finally  distributed  with  care  to  the 
school  paupers.  It  is  probably  safe  to  say  that,  in  many 
city  schools,  from  two  or  three  days  to  two  or  three  weeks 
of  instruction  are  lost  by  this  vicious  system,  this  artificially- 
created  necessity  of  drawing  a  line — often  very  crooked 
— between  those  able  and  those  unable  to  furnish  their  chil- 
dren with  books.  Let  those  who  are  eager  for  economy, . 
as  we  all  ought  to  be,  seek  to  avoid  this  waste  of  the  pupils* 
time,  the  people's  money,  and  the  teacher's  energies,  over 
questions  that  are  likely  to  be  disgusting,  and  ought  to  be 
irrelevant.  Free  books  would  effect  that  important  saving. 

III.     The  present  system  of  supplying  but  a  portion  of 


FREE    TEXT    BOOKS. 

the  pupils  at  the  public  expense  tends,  in  very  many 
schools,  to  encourage  lying  and  cheating  on  the  part  of 
both  parents  and  children.  Within  the  present  month  an 
endeavor  has  been  made  to  ascertain  the  facts  as  to  the 
number  supplied  with  books  at  the  public  expense  in  forty- 
nine  of  the  grammar-schools  of  Massachusetts,  and  there 
have  been  received  in  reply  the  written  statements  of  forty- 
eight  of  the  forty-nine  principals,  showing  that  there  are 
this  year,  in  those  forty-eight  schools,  twenty-six  thousand 
four  hundred  pupils,  of  whom  fifteen  thousand  seven  hun- 
dred and  forty-eight  are  supplied  with  one  or  more  books 
at  the  public  expense,  as  "  indigent  pupils.  "  It  is  perfectly 
well  understood  in  those  schools  and  communities  that  the 
public  books  are  intended  for  those  only  who  are  too  poor 
to  buy  them.  Yet  here  are  sixty  per  cent,  of  the  parents 
and  children  claiming  assistance  on  the  ground  of  extreme 
poverty  !  Does  any  one  suppose  that  fifteen  thousand 
seven  hundred  out  of  twenty-six  thousand  four  hundred 
are  really  so  poor?  Can  any  one  doubt  that  here  are 
temptations  and  yieldings  to  fraud  on  an  extensive  scale? 
Once  weaken  a  man's  sense  of  shame^at  receiving  alms, 
and  you  find  yourself  confronted  by  a  sturdy  beggar. 
Let  some  of  the  community  be  supplied  with  books  as 
semi-paupers;  the  next  and  almost  inevitable  step  is  for  the 
unprincipled,  in  annually  increasing  numbers,  with  shrewd 
hypocrisy  or  brazen  effrontery,  to  •pretend  inability,  in 
order  to  get  what  they  conceive  to  be  their  share  of  the 
public  property.  Among  these  forty-eight  grammar- 
schools  there  are  three  that  have  an  aggregate  of  two 
thousand  three  hundred  and  ten  pupils,  and  of  these 
there  are  two  thousand  two  hundred  and  twenty-five,  or 
over  ninety-six  per  cent.,  receiving  city  books  as  "indigent 
pupils  "  !  It  is  painful  to  think  how  many  of  these  there 
must  be,  perfectly  well  able  to  supply  themselves,  yet 


FREE    TEXT    BOOKS.  9 

stealthily  or  impudently,  by  necessary  implication  or  by 
open  falsehood,  representing  themselves  as  fit  objects  of 
public  charity.  The  masters  of  such  schools  tell  us  that 
parents  who  pay  taxes  to  the  amount  of  hundreds  of  dol- 
lars plead  poverty,  and  encourage  their  children  to  make 
the  same  pretense,  in  order  to  save  a  few  dimes  by  getting 
from  the  city  books  to  which  they  have  neither  legal  nor 
moral  right.  If  the  teacher  or  committee-man  supplies 
them  liberally  and  asks  no  questions,  he  is  popular  in  his 
district.  And  so  there  are,  in  the  schools  of  Massachusetts, 
many  thousands  of  children  who,  daily  and  hourly,  at 
school,  hold  in  their  hands  these  supplies,  known  to  have 
been  obtained  by  fraud,  and  which,  bearing  the  city  label, 
are  a  perpetual  reminder  to  such  children  of  the  gross 
imposition  practiced  by  them  and  their  parents.  By  what 
sophistry  such  parents  pacify  their  consciences,  or  even 
pride  themselves  upon  outwitting  the  custodians  of  the 
public  property,  we  need  not  ask ;  but  imagine  for  a 
moment  the  effect  of  such  a  parent's  example  upon  the 
moral  principles  of  the  child  —  the  child  who  is  naturally 
eager  to  justify  the  parent's  action,  to  palliate  the  parent's 
lie,  to  applaud  the  parent's  swindle,  and  who  is  visibly 
profiting  by  the  iniquity.  Making  the  books  free  would 
discontinue  that  lesson  of  successful  villainy  now  taught  to 
so  many  thousands.  By  all  means  let  us  withdraw  that 
suggestion  of  the  possibility  of  successful  peculation  and 
embezzlement,  and  stop  that  contagious  moral  rottenness 
which  approves,  as  business  smartness,  the  adroit  perver- 
sion of  public  trusts  to  private  ends.  What  right  have  we 
to  pray  "  Lead  us  not  into  temptation, "  so  long  as  this 
process  of  plunder,  in  which  the  young  are  compelled  to 
participate,  goes  on?  so  long  as,  before  the  child's  daily 
observation,  is  held  up  this  infectious  example,  confusing 
his  moral  perceptions,  blunting  his  conscience,  making 


tO  FREE    TEXT    BOOKS. 

mockery    of  the  claims  of  the  public,  and    palpably  be- 
stowing a  premium  upon  hypocrisy  ? 

"  I  waive  the  quantum  o'  the  sin, 
The  hazard  o'  concealin' ; 
But,  ah  !  it  hardens  a'  within — 
It  petrifies  the  f  eelin'. " 

IV.  Here  we  may  be  allowed  to  speak  a  brief  word 
for  those  who  are  too  humble  or  too  feeble  to  speak  for 
themselves.  Indeed,  they  cannot  speak  without  bringing 
upon  themselves  new  shame.  There  are  thousands  of 
them  in  Massachusetts  —  the  poor  whom  we  have  always 
with  us.  Their  tender  love  for  their  children,  their  ardent 
desire  to  secure  for  them  a  better  lot  than  that  of  their  par- 
ents, prompts  the  sending  of  them  to  the  public  school. 
But  they  have  not  even  money  enough  for  bread  and  de- 
cent clothing,  and  they  cannot  buy  books.  Private 
charity  does  not  supply  them,  and  is  totally  inadequate  to 
supply  them.  For 'such,  the  public  schools  are  not  free  ; 
they  must  make  the  humiliating  confession  of  utter  pov- 
erty before  they  can  receive  the  boon  of  instruction.  This 
undeserved  shame  is  tho  price  they  and  their  children 
must  pay  for  education.  They  recoil  from  the  idea  of 
"coming  upon  the  parish."  It  is  an  honorable  sentiment, 
deeply  planted  in  every  New  England  heart — this  horror 
at  the  thought  of  being  reduced  to  accept  public  alms. 
"  Paupers,  vagabonds,  and  fugitives  from  justice  " — so  the 
helpless  poor  have  been  classified  in  public  and  private 
speech  from  time  immemorial.  No  laceration  more  cruel 
to  the  feelings  of  a  sensitive  parent  or  child  can  be 
found.  More  than  once  during  the  past  four  months  I 
have  been  made  the  unwilling  witness  of  the  distress  of 
parents  who  had  seen  better  days,  but  who  now  begged 
me,  with  tears,  to  supply  their  children  with  public  books, 


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and  to  keep  concealed  the  fact  of  this  mortifying  depend- 
ence upon  public  charity.  Is  it  supposed  that  they  do  not 
feel  it,  because  they  say  nothing  about  it  ?  because  they 
do  not  parade  their  grief  in  the  newspapers  ?  because  they 
do  not  tell  the  world  of  their  shame  and  wretchedness  ? 
They  do  feel  it  keenly.  Let  the  supply  be  free  to  all,  and 
you  visibly  lift  thousands  of  heads  now  bowed  with  this 
unmerited  disgrace;  you  visibly  lift  many  thousands  of 
children  above  the  degradation  of  confessed  pauperism. 
Put  them  on  a  level  with  their  more  favored  companions  : 
they  at  once  become  less  servile,  less  abject,  more  hopeful; 
they  will  grow  to  be  manlier  men  and  womanlier  women; 
in  time  of  public  danger  they  will  uphold  with  a  stronger 
arm  and  a  more  loving  patriotism  the  hand  of  the  Com- 
monwealth that  has  so  gently  and  generously  lifted  and 
led  them  in  their  hour  of  weakness. 

Having  thus  endeavored  to  show  that  a  gratuitous  sup. 
ply  of  text-books  to  all  pupils  would  probably  draw  int9 
the  schools  a  large  number  of  children  now  growing  up  in 
utter  ignorance;  that  it  would  avoid  the  embarrassing  and 
wasteful  delay  in  beginning  school-work;  that  it  would  re- 
move the  wide-spread  and  insidious  temptation  and  ex- 
ample of  dishonesty  in  obtaining  public  books,  and  that  it 
would  relieve  multitudes  of  sensitive  hearts  from  the  cruel 
humiliation  now  imposed  upon  them  of  accepting  public 
alms  as  the  price  of  instruction — we  proceed  to  notice 
briefly  some  objections  to  such  gratuitous  supply. 

( i )  It  may  be  said  that  free  books  would  increase  the 
tax  upon  property.  It  may  be  answered  that  this  increase, 
at  most,  would  be  very  slight.  The  actual  cost  of  the 
books  to  the  community  would  be  less  than  now.  Buy- 
ing by  the  quantity,  the  town  or  city  would  be  able  to 


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purchase  at  about  half  the  usual  price.  Experience  shows 
that  the  books  would  be  better  taken  care  of  than  now, 
and  each  book  would  last  for  years.  Habits  of  wasteful- 
ness or  carelessness  in  the  use  of  books  could  be  better 
prevented  ;  for  now  the  pupil  feels  that  he  has  a  right  to 
disfigure  a  book,  because  it  is  his  own.  What  better  text 
for  an  earnest  and  patriotic  appeal  for  care  in  the  treatment 
of  all  public  property  !  In  a  few  years,  too,  while  the 
increase  in  taxes  would  be  inappreciable,  the  increase  of 
skilled  labor,  the  improvement  in  taste  and  culture,  Ihe 
greater,  prevalence  of  education  and  good  morals,  resulting 
from  the  diminution  in  the  numbers  of  the  ignorant,  half- 
pauperized,  dangerous  classes,  would  make  a  residence  in 
Massachusetts  more  desirable,  and  property  more  valuable. 
What  makes  this  city  of  Worcester  so  attractive  to  intel- 
ligent people  ?  Among  my  earliest  recollections  is  a  say- 
ing of  one  to  whom  I  owe  more  than  to  any  other:  "I 
would  like  to  live  in  Worcester,  because  they  have  such 
good  schools  there.  "  Hundreds  of  families  of  the  high- 
est character  have  in  all  probability  been  drawn  hither  by 
similar  considerations,  bringing  property,  enterprise,  thrift, 
taste,  culture  and  moral  soundness  to  this  generous  Heart 
of  the  Commonwealth.  "  The  liberal  deviseth  liberal 
things,  and  by  liberal  things  shall  he  stand." 

(2)  Is  it  urged  that  it  is  important  for  pupils  to  .form 
habits  of  self-reliance,  self-help,  noble  pride,  disdaining  to 
be  recipients  of  public  bounty  ?  This  idea  of  self-help  is 
eloquently  presented  by  some  of  the  best  of  men.  But 
what  is  this  consideration  to  the  multitude  now  kept  out  of 
school  by  the  expense  ?  Self-help  and  charity  thus  far  ut- 
terly fail  to  bring  them  in.  They  must  be  educated,  to 
appreciate  education.  "  First  catch  your  hare,"  is  recog- 
nized as  a  sound  principle  in  prospective  culinary  opera- 


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tions.  First,  coax  into  school — yon  cannot  drive  them  — 
these  twenty  or  thirty  thousand  "  street  Arabs. "  Till 
then  the  main  thing  is  left  undone.  Free  books  will  bring 
in  many ;  nor  will  the  opportunity  of  honorable  self  reliance 
be  lost.  Just  the  opposite.  If  it  seems  noble  to  buy  and 
own  text-books  now,  when  all  are  compelled  to  do  it  or 
plead  poverty,  how  much  nobler  will  it  be  to  buy  and  own 
them  then,  when  none  shall  be  compelled.  There  will  be 
precisely  as  much  opportunity  of  self-supply  as  now,  and 
a  great  deal  more  merit,  because  it  will  be  purely  volun- 
tary. A  set  of  text-books  at  home,  owned  by  the  pupil, 
and  another  set  at  school,  owned  by  the  public,  would 
often  be  a  positive  advantage  in  study. 

(3)  These  considerations  sufficiently  answer'whatever 
may  need  answering  in  the  next  objection — that  a  book 
ought  to  be  bought  and  paid  for,  that  it  may  be  owned, 
treasured,  loved,  tenderly  cherished.  We  honor  this  sen- 
timent. Observe  that  this  privilege,  instead  of  being  de- 
stroyed, will  still  continue,  and  will  be  rendered  more  valu- 
able by  a  gratuitous  supply.  But  books,  after  all,  are 
tools — nothing  more;  means,  not  ends.  Their  main  value 
follows,  rather  than  precedes,  their  purchase.  Their  worth 
is  not  in  the  paltry  sum  they  cost,  but  in  the  precious 
truths  they  contain,  the  hope,  light,  comfort,  inspiration 
they  impart.  "  But  will  not  a  boy  love  his  arithmetic 
book,  because  his  mother  toiled  two  days  to  earn  the 
money  to  pay  for  it  ? "  If  she  blistered  her  hands  by 
overwork,  dimmed  her  eyes  by  plying  the  needle  when  she 
ought  to  have  been  asleep,  suffered  hunger  or  cold  to 
avoid  expense,  that  her  child's  pride  might  be  spared  by 
paying  two  dollars  for  what  would  have  cost  the  city  or 
town  but  one  —  the  average  boy  will  be  quite  as  likely  to 
hate  as  to  love  that  book. 


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(4)  Akin  to  the  two  preceding  objections  is  the  fol- 
lowing: that  pupils  value  more  an  education  that  costs 
them  something,  and  that,  accordingly,  the  price  paid  for 
books  will  be  a  constant  stimulus  to  higher,  more  faithful 
effort,  to  better  scholarship,  and  to  a  nobler  life.  Again 
we  answer,  this  leaves  the  untaught  thousands  in  the 
Slough  of  Despond,  where  they  now  are.  Further,  the 
pecuniary  sacrifice  made  by  the  poor  in  getting  an  education 
always  is  greater  than  that  made  by  the  rich.  And  does 
not  the  argument  prove  too  much  ?  Is  it  true  that  the 
money  cost  of  an  education  is  any  true  measure  of  its 
value  ?  If  so,  why  not  return  to  rate-bills  ?  Why  not 
abolish  free  schools  except  for  paupers  ?  Is  it  true  that 
one  who  pays  money  for  a  text-book  is  thereby  inspired  to 
higher  scholarship  and  nobler  life  ?  Then  the  one  who 
pays  a  large  tuition  fee  ought  to  be  nobler  than  one  who 
pays  none.  Is  this  so  ?  Hardly.  We  have  annually  in 
our  Girls'  High  School  a  number  who,  residing  out  of  the 
city  limits,  pay  $117  a  year  for  tuition.  They  are  good 
girls  but  no  better  than  the  rest.  Of  six  hundred  and 
fifty,  one  seventh  receive  city  books.  Making  due  allow- 
ance for  household  service,  the  scholarship  of  the  seventh, 
like  their  character,  compares  favorably  with  that  of  the 
students  who  buy  books.  And  if  this  were  not  so  in  the 
case  of  any  pupil,  her  relative  inferiority  to  her  classmates 
might  fairly  be  attributed  to  the  depressing  influence  upon 
her  of  confessed  semi-pauperism,  quite  as  much  as  to  the 
ennobling  influence  upon  them  of  paying  five  dollars  a 
year  for  text -books  !  The  fifteen  hundred  students  of  the 
New  York  City  Normal  College,  to  whom  every  book 
and  every  kind  of  material  are  generously  supplied  at  the 
public  expense,  are  probably  as  faithful,  as  scholarly,  and 
as  high-minded  as  any  company  of  young  ladies  in  any 
school  in  the  world.  It  will  hardly  be  claimed  that  the 


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spiritual  tone,  the  menial  or  moral  character,  or  the  attain- 
ments of  the  girls  in  private  schools,  commonly  surpass 
those  of  the  girls  in  public  schools.  The  reverse  is  often 
the  case.  It  is  the  soul  of  the  teacher,  and  the  faithful 
work  and  daily  growth  that  make  education  precious  to 
the  pupil. 

(5)  But  it  will  be  urged,  lastly,  that  the  public  should 
furnish  nothing  that  the  individual  can  furnish  for  himself. 
This  objection  is  based  upon  the  notion  that  knowledge  is 
the  proper  luxury  of  a  few;  whereas  it  is  the  bread  of  life 
to  all,  and  the  indispensable  basis  ofjree  institutions.  If 
the  objection  is  valid,  to  be  consistent  we  must  abolish  all 
public  schools,  except  for  paupers  !  But  it  will  be  asked, 
"  If  books  are  to  be  furnished  free,  where  shall  we  stop  ? 
we  shall  also  be  called  upon  to  furnish  shoes  and  coats,  and 
where  shall  we  stop  ?  We  will  not  supply  them  with 
books,  for  fear  we  shall  find  it  out  duty  to  supply  them 
with  clothing  ! "  To  which  it  may  be  answered  :  Better 
clothe  in  purple  and  fine  linen  those  twenty-five  thousand 
children  now  growing  up  in  ignorance  and  vice  ;  better 
give  them  a  sumptuous  dinner  every  day;  better  pay  them 
a  good  round  sum  for  attendance,  than  to  suffer  them  to 
continue  longer  without  instruction.  As  was  said  of 
Slavery,  "  Let  us,  if  need  be,  build  a  bridge  of  gold  for  the 
retreating  fiend  !"  The  sooner  we  come  to  look  upon  the 
intellectual  and  moral  training  of  all  the  young,  of  every 
human  soul,»as  the  highest  political  wisdom,  and  the  boun- 
clen  duty  of  the  State,  the  better  it  will  be  for  individual 
happiness  and  for  the  public  security. 

Let  the  books,  the  materials  and  the  stationery,  then, 
like  the  apparatus,  the  furniture,  the  grounds  and  the 
buildings,  be  furnished  gratuitously  to  all.  The  gross  in- 


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consistency,  to  use  no  harsher  word,  of  making  attendance 
at  school  compulsory,  as  is  the  case  in  some  states,  and  not 
at  the  same  time  making  text-books  free,  requiring  under 
penalties  the  education,  yet  witholding  the  means  to 
attain  thai  education,  must  be  obvious  at  a  glance.  It  ill 
becomes  an  American  town  or  city ;  it  ill  becomes  a  great, 
rich,  magnanimous  commonwealth,  to  stand,  lash  in  hand, 
and  drive  the  poor,  every  few  months,  to  a  shameful  con- 
fession of  hopeless  poverty,  as  an  indispensable  step  in  the 
acquisition  of  that  very  education  without  which  the  whole 
edifice  of  our  free  institutions  must,  sooner  or  later,  go 
down  in  fire  and  blood. 


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THE  MASSACHUSETTS  POLICY. 


[Speech  of  Homer  B.  Sprague,  President  of  the  University  of  North  Dakota,  at 
the  National  Educational  Association  at  San  Francisco,  Cal.,  July  20,  1888.  J 

The  duty  has  been  assigned  me  of  discussing  for  ten 
minutes  the  able  and  interesting,  but  radically  unsound  pa- 
per of  the  gentleman  from  Ohio.*  His  position  would  be 
very  strong,  were  it  not  very  wrong.  We  differ,  I  fear, 
on  fundamental  principles.  Underlying  his  argument,  and 
cropping  out  more  or  less  distinctly  here  and  there,  if  I 
mistake  not,  is  the  old  fallacy  of  a  social  contract  as  the 
foundation  of  society  and  government  —  the  doctrine  that 
the  natural  condition  of  mankind  is  one  of  isolation  and 
even  of  mutual  antagonism;  that  society  is  an  afterthought, 
a  matter  of  choice,  therefore  artificial ;  that  government,  too, 
is  a  strictly  human  contrivance  springing  from  compact ; 
its  powers  a  bundle  of  concessions  wrung  from  man's  ne- 
cessities ;  essentially  restrictive,  and  needing  to  be  watched 
and  restricted  in  turn  lest  it  encroach  upon  the  reserved 
rights  of  individuals;  not  absolutely  but  only  relatively 
good,  a  choice  of  evils,  the  lesser  of  two  evils,  but  always 
an  evil,  at  best  a  necessary  evil,  and  so  to  be  reduced  to  a 
minimum,  or  as  the  maxim  runs,  "  That  government  is 
best  which  governs  least.  "  This  theory  is  forever  saying 
to  government,  "  Laissez  faire"  u  Hands  off  !  "  Carried 
to  its  logical  conclusion,  it  would  abolish  all  public  schools, 
except,  possibly,  for  paupers. 

*Supt.  R.  W.  Stevenson,  of  Columbns,  Ohio. 


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Against  this  doctrine  and  the  inferences  our  friend  from 
Ohio  seems  to  draw  from  it,  I  beg  to  protest.  I  think  he 
starts  wrong  ;  that  there  never  was  any  such  antecedent 
condition  of  isolation  or  antagonism ;  that  society  is  the 
natural  and  normal  element  into  which  man  is  born  and  in 
which  he  must  live;  that  the  state  is  society  organized,  an 
organism  in  which  all  essential  parts  are  mutually  helpful, 
not  antagonistic  but  reciprocally  means  and  ends;  that 
government  is  the  outgrowth  of  and  for  society,  its  divinely 
appointed  right  hand  and  arm,  best  when  it  most  largely 
and  efficiently  promotes  the  welfare  of  all.  Accordingly, 
I  don't  like  our  friend's  continual  antithesis  of  the  indivi- 
dual and  the  state,  the  parent  and  the  state,  the  tax- 
payer and  the  state,  the  family  and  the  state,  the  peo- 
ple and  the  state;  as  when  he  says,  "Free  schools  are 
receiving  the  support  of  the  state  only  so  far  as  the  people 
cannot  sustain  them  for  themselves, "  and,  "  Both  state 
and  individual  are  deeply  interested,  therefore  the  expense 
and  responsibility  should  be  shared  by  each ; "  and  again, 
"  The  state  has  done  its  whole  duty  when  it  has  done  for 
the  family  what  the  family  cannot  do  for  itself.  " 

All  this  is  misleading.  The  people  are  the  state;  the 
individual  is  an  essential  part  of  the  government.  At  the 
very  center  of  our  American  system  especially,  its  most 
vital  principle  is  this:  that  every  man  is  a  voter  and  every 
voter  a  ruler.  Every  year,  in  almost  every  division  and 
sub-division  of  the  body  politic,  on  important  questions, 
the  votes  of  a  majority  or  plurality  directly  or  indirectly 
determine  the  issue,  shape  the  policy,  make  the  law. 
Every  ballot  aids;  a  single  ballot  may  be  decisive.  Busi- 
ness prosperity  or  adversity,  financial  success  or  ruin,  light 
or  heavy  taxation,  public  honor  or  disgrace,  individual 
ease,  peace,  comfort,  convenience,  liberty,  reputation,  life 
itself  may  hang  on  the  decision  of  the  hour.  I  must  not 


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pause  to  illustrate;  but  many  of  us  remember  when  the 
very  existence  of  our  country  trembled  in  the  balance,  and 
a  few  votes  turned  the  scale  deciding  that  the  republic 
should  not  be  split  into  fragments,  that  it  should  be  free 
and  not  slave,  that  the  war  should  be  waged  to  the  bitter 
end,  that  hundreds  of  thousands  of  lives  and  thousands  of 
millions  of  dollars  were  not  too  great  a  price  to  pay  for 
the  nation's  life. 

The  fact  is,  every  city,  town,  county,  state,  the  nation 
itself,  is  a  vast  business  corporation  carrying  on  many 
kinds  of  business,  and  every  voter  is  a  stockholder,  a  direct- 
or; and  woe  to  us  and  to  our  children  if  he  does  not  direct 
wisely  !  The  vote  of  John  L.  Sullivan  counts  as  much  as 
that^of  George  Washington;  Sambo's  offsets  Franklin's  or 
Solomon's.  What  community  has  not  suffered  from  the 
votes  of  foolish  or  ignorant  or  unprincipled  men  ?  Whose 
purse  lias  not  been  depleted  by  taxation  that  was  tant- 
amount to  sheer  robbery  ?  Whose  cheek  has  not  tingled 
with  shame  or  indignation  at  the  story  of  rabbles  led  to 
the  polls  and  paid  for  their  votes  by  bosses  and  demagogues  ? 
The  voters  of  San  Francisco  know  what  I  mean.  But 
this  is  not  the  only  city  at  the  mercy  of  a  voting  mob. 

So  it  must  be  until  mobs  and  rabbles  cease.  There  is 
not  power  enough  in  these  United  States  to  disfranchise 
them.  It  is  too  late  for  that.  It  would  be  political 
suicide  for  any  politician  to  attempt  it.  Rightly  or  wrongly 
the  people  must  rule.  How  shall  they  be  made  to  rule 
rightly  ?  That  is  the  question  of  questions,  in  the  pres- 
ence of  which  the  cost  of  text-books  sinks  into  utter  insig- 
nificance. 

There  is  one  means  and  only  one — education !  Make 
every  voter  intelligent,  honest,  patriotic.  But  it  must  be 
no  ordinary  degree  of  intelligence,  no  scanty  measure  of 
honesty,  no  faint  love  of  country.  The  keenest  intelletc 


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to  know  the  right,  the  strongest  grasp  of  sound  principles, 
the  broadest  and  most  minute  information,  the  loftiest  in- 
tegrity, the  most  genuine  hatred  of  shams  and  false  pre- 
tences, the  warmest  and  most  unselfish  patriotism  —  these 
are  indispensable  elements  in  that  thorough  and  many- 
sided  education  that  shall  "  fit  a  man  to  perform  justly, 
skillfully,  and  magnanimously  all  the  offices,  public  and 
private,  of  peace — an  education,  not  of  a  few  but  of  the 
many,  not  of  a  majority  merely,  but  of  every  voter.  The 
high  education  of  every  child — that  is  the  ideal  that 
should  be  forever  present  to  the  teacher,  the  school-com- 
mittee, the  legislator,  the  citizen.  In  the  realization  of 
this  ideal  will  be  found  the  remedy  or  the  antidote  for 
every  political  and  social  evil  we  feel  or  fear.  In  propor- 
tion as  we  approach  it,  will  be  the  measure  of  our  political 
and  social  blessings.  In  proportion  as  we  fall  short  of  it, 
will  be  the  degree  of  our  political  and  social  misfortunes. 

Let  us  rise  to  the  grandeur  of  this  conception  of  the 
high  education  of  every  child.  No  philosopher  may  have 
formulated  it;  no  statesman  may  have  suggested  it;  no 
patriot  may  have  demanded  it;  hardly  has  poet  sung  of  it 
or  prophet  foretold  it.  Yet  it  is  as  certainly  implied  and 
involved  in  the  very  heart  of  the  American  government  as 
the  oak  is  in  the  acorn.  It  is  the  American  idea,  and  it 
will  by  and  by  be  realized.  How  ? 

It  must  be  through  the  public  schools,  not  otherwise. 
The  parent  cannot  impart  the  education  he  does  not  possess. 
The  private  school,  the  Sunday  school,  the  parish  school 
never  did  and  never  can  sufficiently  educate  the  masses. 
The  public  school  can  educate  all.  It  was  established  for 
that  very  purpose.  The  first  work  of  every  patriot  should 
be  to  draw  into  it  every  child  not  adequately  instructed 
and  trained  elsewhere.  To  that  end,  every  barrier  that  ex- 
cludes any  worthy  pupil  should  be  broken  down  and 


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swept  away.  The  cost  of  text-books  is  such  a  harrier, 
and  a  formidable  one.  It  is  demonstrable  that  in  all  pro- 
bability hundreds  of  thousands  of  children  in  the  northern 
states  are  so  debarred  the  privileges  of  the  schools;  and 
probably  in  the  whole  republic  there  are  not  less  than  a 
million  parents  utterly  unable  to  purchase  text-books  for 
their  children.  To  all  such  the  school  authorities  virtually 
say  "  Keep  your  children  at  home,  or,  if  you  send  them  to 
school,  buy  these  books  ;  or  confess  yourselves  paupers, 
and  in  that  case  we  will  perhaps  supply  them  as  a  charity." 
They  cannot  buy  the  books,  they  are  too  self-respecting  to 
accept  an  alms'  their  children  will  not  come  to  school  as 
paupers.  By  a  refinement  of  cruelty  in  some  states,  atten- 
dance is  compulsory,  but  no  means  are  provided  to  spare 
the  laceration  of  the  .feelings  of  parents  hopelessly  poor. 

Thank  God,  there  is  one  state  in  which  this  odious 
and  cruel  and  un-American  distinction,  labeling  some 
books  as  an  alms  and  some  children  as  school-paupers,  no 
longer  exists!  It  pleases  6ur  friend  from  Ohio  to  be  face- 
tious at  the  expense  of  Massachusetts.*  He  tells  us  that  in 
Massachusetts  they  "  loan  what  they  have  and  borrow 
what  they  have  not."  Pray,  what  else  should  they  loan 
or  borrow?  Is  it  different  in  Ohio?  With  a  fling  at  Mas- 
sachusetts honesty,  he  tells  us  that  a  Massachusetts  man 
borrowed  a  Bible.  He  forgot  to  tell  us  that  Massachusetts 

*Snpt.  Stevenson  said  among  other  things  the  following :  "Boards  of  Educa- 
tion in  Massachusetts  shall  furnish  text-books  and  supplies  free.  They  are 
loaned  to  the  children.  It  is  the  pride  of  this  state  to  be  in  advance  of  all  her 
sister  states.  Hhe  is  nothing  if  not  radical.  The  children  are  being  trained  to 
buy  nothing  which  they  can  borrow.  A  Massachusftts  man  stopped  with  an 
Ohio  friend.  la  the  chamber  in  which  he  slept  was  a  Bible.  When  he  had  gone 
his  Ohio  host  discovered  he  had  borrowed  the  Bible.  Everybody  in  Massa- 
chusetts loans  what  he  has  and  borrows  what  he  has  not.  Books  in  this  state  are 
like  children— well  enough  to  have  around,  but  not  profitable  to  own.  Educa- 
tion is  a  good  thing,  but  not  worth  personal  effort  and  sacrifice.  Mr.  Lowell 
tells  us  that  "  there  is  one  thing  better  than  a  cheap  book,  and  that  is  a  book 
honestly  come  by.  '  The  system  of  free  text-books  is  said  to  work  admirably. 
How  could  it  be  otherwise  ?  Itr  is  quite  natural  to  take  all  we  can  get ;  everyone 
is  pleased,  if  not  grateful,  to  get  something  for  nothing.  When  the  sons  and 
daughters  of  Massachusetts  come  to  this  land  of  pnnshine  and  flowers,  they  will 
expect  to  borrow  your  orange-groves,  grapes,  ranches,  and  gold  mines, 


22  FREE    TEXT    BOOKS. 

trains  every  child  to  return  punctually  what  is  borrowed. 
He  forgot  also  to  tell  us  that  Massachusetts  can  borrow  on 
the  lowest  terms  in  any  money  market  in  the  world, 
because  she  always  pays  her  debts  in  letter  and  spirit.  Sir, 
the  first  time  I  "  struck  "  Ohio,  I  bought  Kenan's  Life  of 
Jesus,  then  just  issued  from  the  press.  It  was  in  Cincin- 
nati. In  two  hours  an  Ohio  man  stole  it  from  me.  I  did 
not,  however,  after  the  manner  of  our  friend,  impute  the 
theft  to  the  school  system  of  Ohio.  I  thought  it  a  clear 
case  of  piety  run  mad. 

"It  is  the  pride  of  Massachusetts,"  says  our  friend, "to 
be  in  advance  of  all  her'sister  states.  She  is  nothing  if  not 
radical,"  etc.  Sir,  these  sneers  at  Massachusetts  come 
with  an  ill  grace  from  any  friend  of  education  or  of  his 
country.  Massachusetts  —  foremost  in  every  good  cause, 
as  when  her  earliest  colony  established  religious  liberty  at 
Plymouth  in  1620,  or  when  she  struck  the  first  heavy 
blows  for  civil  liberty  at  Lexington  and  Concord  and 
Bunker  Hill  in  1775  ;  or  when,  in  1861,  from  the  brain  of 
the  Great  Republic,  from  the  far  northeast  in  advance  of 
her  sisters,  Massachusetts,  Minerva-like,  clad  in  complete 
steel,  leaped  into  the  arena  at  Baltimore  and  Washington 
for  the  freedom  of  the  slave  —  Massachusetts  still  leads 
the  column,  not  for  liberty  alone,  but  for  that  education 
without  which  liberty  cannot  live!  She  it  was  that  orig- 
inated and  established  the  American  system  of  free 
schools  two  and  a  half  centuries  ago  :  that  241  years  ago 
ordained  that  every  town  of  one  hundred  householders 
should  maintain  a  school  in  which  youth  could  be  fitted 
for  the  University  at  Cambridge  ;  that  established  the  first 
free  high  school,  the  first  free  normal  school,  the  first  free 
art  school,  the  first  school  library  in  every  district,  the  first 
instruction  in  drawing  in  all  public  schools.  And  what  is 
the  result  ?  She  is  a  little  state;  she  has  almost  no  natural 


FREE    TEXT    BOOKS.  23 

resources;  no  precious  gems;  no  mines  of  gold,  silver,  cop- 
per, lead,  iron,  or  coal;  no  oil,  no  gas,  little  fertile  land,  no 
navigable  streams;  but  by  the  industry,  intelligence,  thrift, 
and  honest  dealing  fostered  in  her  public  schools,  she 
stands,  as  she  has  stood  for  100  years,  in  the  very  front 
of  American  States  as  regards  pecuniary  wealth;  and  if 
you  ask  as  to  intellectual  wealth,  where  in  America  will 
you  find  her  equal?  where  in  the  world  her  superior? 
Here  is  the  birth-place  of  Franklin  and  Bancroft  and  Bry- 
ant; the  homes  of  Jonathan  Edwards  and  Longfellow  and 
Lowell  and  Holmes  and  Whittier  and  Emerson  and  Agas- 
siz  and  Prescott  and  Choate  and  Everett  and  Webster  and 
Starr  King  and  Phillips  and  Sumner  and  Garrison  and 
the  Adamses  and  the  Winthrops  and  Horace  Mann  and 
Mary  Lyon,  and  others  whose  names  are  conspicuous 
among  the  noblest  living  or  the  most  honored  dead. 
Here,  within  75  miles  from  the  center  of  the  state,  are 
Wellesley  College  and  Smith  College  and  Tufts  College 
and  the  College  of  the  Holy  Cross  and  Williams  College 
and  Amherst  College,  and  Holyoke  Seminary  and  Willis- 
ton  Seminary  and  Phillips  Academy,  and  the  Industrial 
Institute  at  Worcester  and  the  Institute  of  Technology  at 
Boston,  and  the  noblest  public  library  in  America  and  the 
finest  Art  Museum  in  America  and  the  largest  Conserva- 
tory of  '  Music  in  the  world,  and  Andover  Theological 
Seminary  and  Newton  Theological  Seminary  and  Cam- 
bridge Divinity  School,  and  Boston  University,  and  the 
youngest  American  university  with  that  prince  of  educ- 
ucators,  G.  Stanley  Hall,  at  its  head,  and  the  oldest  and 
greatest  of  American  universities,  grand  old  Harvard  ! 
Yet,  perhaps,  her  proudest  pre-eminence,  her  crowning 
glory,  is  the  fact  that,  of  all  states  of  the  civilized  world, 
she  is  the  first  to  make  her  public  schools  absolutely  free. 
God  save  the  Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts  ! 


COMPOSITIONS  OF  H.  W.  FAIRBANK. 

VOCAL. 

My  Love,  Picture,  Sweet  and  True,  6,000  Copies  sold,           ...  j  40 

B^Xt^BSttef'j     Two  beautiful  companion  pieces,  each,  -        35 

Song  Beside  tlie  Sea,  beauti'ul  Song  and  Chorus,  just  out-             -  -       3) 

On  thy  Fair  Bosom.  Silver  Lake.    Song  for  Soprano,  -   -        -        -  -             3o 

I  dreamed  I  Lay  Where  Flowers  Were  Springing.    Ballad,       -       -  -         30 

Old  Folks  at  Home.    Arranged  as  a  Quartette,       ...               -  .       25 

Don't  Stay  after  Ten.    Serio-comic  song  and  chorus,         -       -  30 

Hail!  All  Hail!    Male  quartette,  15 

Three  >ongs  for  Lady  Voices,  Bound  together  for         -       -  -           10 

Lady  quartette. 


(   No.  1.     Winter  Song. 

•j   No.  2.    Day  Slowly  Declining. 

(   No.  3     Serenade. 


"       Quintette 

Anthem.    "The  Lord  is  My  Shepherd."    Very  pretty.  -       -  10 

INSTRUMENTAL. 

FOR    PIANO. 

In  Remembrance.    Mazurka.         •-          ........  40 

T'  Amethyst.     Valse  de  Concert,     --         ----._.  60 

Les  Reveries  du  Pays.    (Dreams  of  Home.)       ......  30 

In  Memoriam.  -  -  --.          -         -  30 

Andante  and  Romanza,  ,  -  -  30 

Idlewild  Waltz,  ........  30 

FOR    CABINET    ORGAN. 

Sad  Heart  Waltz.    (Beautifully  Illustrated  title  pagr),-  ...  40 

Glad  Heart  Waltz,  ..........  40 

Banquet  Waltz,  .....       -       -       -  35 

Melrose  Waltz,  -          -          -       -       .       .....  10 

Also  the  Popular  Cabinet  Organ  Series.    14,000  already  sold. 


No.  1.    Waltz  Song. 
No.  2.    Polka  Mazurka. 
No.  3.    March. 


No.  4.     Galop. 

No.  5.     Schottische. 

No.  6.    Polonaise. 


EACH  SO  CENTS. 


Is     S©F)  S 


No.    1.    Primary.  For  Primary  Grades  only. 

No.    2.    Intermediate,         -  -        Music  written  mostly  in  Two  Parts 

No.    3.    Grammar  School,         -  -       -             Music  written  in  Three  Parts 

No.    4.  ,High  School,        -  Music  written  in  Four  Parts. 

50,000  already  Sold. 

Retail  Price,  IO  cents. 

IN  QUANTITIES,                -            -  1-10  PER  DOZEN,  POST-PAID. 


THE" CHURCH  SERVICE," 

A  collection  of  Twelve  Pamphlets  arranged  for  Quartette  and  Chorus  Choirs. 
Nos.  1,  2,  5,  6,  8,  9, 10, 11  and  12  are  suitable  for  Chorus  Choirs.  Nos.  3,  4,  7,  9,  10 
and  12  are  especially  adapted  to  Quartette  Choirs.  These  numbers  are  to  be  had 
at  prices  ranging  from  5  to  20  cents. 

S.  R.  WINCHELL  &  CO  ,  Chicago,  111. 


THE  LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
LOS  ANGFTTJ!S 


THE  LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OP  CALIFORNIA 
LOS  ANGELES 


LB 

2851 

S76</ 


